Eva Guinan

Eva Guinan's research focuses on overcoming problems related to allogenicity in transplantation, decreasing treatment related toxicity, and managing bone marrow failure syndromes. She also works with Harvard University collaborators on ways to spur more innovative translational research. Allogeneic transplantation is limited, in large part, by the ability to find donors of suitable histocompatibility. Global immunosuppression has been an incomplete and highly toxic approach to this problem. Current understanding of T cell activation suggests that blocking B7-CD28 interactions of the costimulatory pathway for human T helper cells may provide an innovative and effective way of producing antigen-specific T cell hyporesponsiveness. Guinan and colleagues are applying these various strategies to the transplant setting. Another area of active investigation is the development of novel agents for prevention or treatment of treatment-related toxicity.